What I Learned from My 5K Walk

When I walked the Global 5K event with Runkeeper, I felt pretty good during the process. I wasn’t winded, my heart didn’t leap out of my chest and my blood pressure didn’t cause me to feel like I was going to explode. However, I did manage to hurt myself pretty bad. Weighing as much as I do and wearing the wrong kind of shoes were my two biggest downfalls. Even though I walked 3.4 miles without passing out, I didn’t do it the right way.

What I Took Away From This Experience

By the time I was done with my walk, I managed to create metatarsal stress fractures on both of my feet. My right foot experienced the worse of it and I am currently in a great deal of pain. As you can imagine, it’s incredibly difficult for me to walk at the moment. I mean, if one foot was fractured, I’d still be able to get around. With both feet damaged, it’s even more painful as I can’t put too much weight on either foot. However, I did learn a few things from this experience for next time.

Limitations
In a previous post, I wrote about knowing your limitations. I grossly overestimated what I could accomplish in a 5K walk. It wasn’t that I got winded, developed side pains or increased my blood pressure. This was all about my feet. I didn’t take into consideration what three miles would do at 275+ pounds while wearing the wrong kind of shoes. I should have stopped at the first sign of pain, but I thought I could push through it – which I did. Unfortunately, I am paying for my arrogance this week.

Shoes
I never really put much belief into the right kinds of shoes offering certain benefits. When I was younger, I did everything in canvas loafers. As I am rounding the horn at 40, I simply cannot do those kinds of things anymore. Not to mention that I was 100 pounds lighter back then. So, yes…next time I will be wearing proper shoes.

My Weight
Being obese, there are simply things my body cannot do. This feeds into knowing limitations as my body needs to adjust for the increased mass. I should have maintained walking one mile per day until I reduced my weight before trying to push through 3.4 miles. I ignored my own advice of starting slow and working into greater accomplishments. I am living proof of why this is the best practice – I am in sheer agony because I tried to go the distance without properly preparing myself physically.

It Ain’t Over

Although I managed to hurt myself something fierce, I’m not going to view it as a failure. Instead, I am viewing it as an experience from which I learned a great deal about what I can do at the moment. For now, I will simply ease back into weight training and cardio activity until I can sustain greater effort. As soon as my feet heal, I’ll start walking more often and get my body into the shape it needs to be before committing to such a long distance.

It’s frustrating to know that I can go nearly three-and-a-half miles without getting winded but my feet crumble. It’s all good, though. I’ll just keep working in order to overcome these problems. Like I tell my children, “Never give up, never surrender!” Yes, that was a line from the movie Galaxy Quest.

Michael Brockbank

Michael is a work at home father who has completed a wide assortment of writing regarding various topics. Currently, he is working to achieve a weight loss goal and improve health in order to cross the state of Colorado on bicycle.